Musical education Born in the city of
Juybar, Iran. Mortazavi studied music in
Tehran. He was trained in
improvisation,
orchestration, arrangement,
quarter tone technique, and
dastgah by various well-known violinists in Iran. Mortazavi started learning the violin under the supervision of Masoud Namazian when he was three years old. In a
Nowruz 1991 interview with Alireza Amirghassemi on
The Tapesh Show, Mortazavi claimed that as part of his tutelage, Namazian had him focus for the first three months only on music theory to learn the notes and scales and then apply them to the violin, as Mortazavi did not attend music school, and advised his parents to not let him touch the violin during that time. Mortazavi claimed his mother hid his violin in a cupboard for that period, although he would often play on the violin in secret until his mother eventually caught him. He would later take lessons from
Ali Tajvidi,
Parviz Yahaghi, Habibollah Badiei, Jahangir Kamiyan. At the age of seven, he also started playing the piano, guitar,
percussion, and folk string instruments such as
oud,
tar, and
santur. Mortazavi won his first prize at the age of eleven in a national music contest among students of all ages in Iran. He was fourteen when he conducted a 32-person orchestra, performing his own compositions and arrangements at the
Ramsar Summer Camp in Iran. After graduating from high school, Mortazavi moved to the United Kingdom. There, he pursued his academic interest in the field of civil engineering while continuing to train and perform on the violin.
Professional career In 1979, Mortazavi moved to the United States, continued his music and engineering education at Texas State University, and eventually settled in California in 1985. There he started composing and arranging music for Iranian pop singers, and playing the violin. He released his first album,
Bijan Mortazavi: Magic of His Music and His Songs, in 1990, and it became a best-seller among Persian albums that year. Mortazavi was interviewed on
The Tapesh Show for the 1991 Persian New Year, at the end of which he performed the album's first song, "Asheghi Chieh", along with "Gole Sangam", on the piano, singing along with Sattar,
Shahrum K and the show's presenters, to close the final Nowrooz episode. After the release of his album
Bijan Mortazavi 3, which featured Mortazavi's talents as a violinist and singer, his next album,
Fire on Ice (Instrumental), was a combination of Persian-style violin and
new-age instrumental music. He released two more albums,
Sweet Scent of Love and
Voice of Silence, in 1999 and 2001, respectively. In 2004 Bijan released the album
Ye Ghatreh Darya, an upbeat dance album that included a Kordish style dance-music, rhythm and circle-dance track titled "Ronak". The album has been played at many Persian weddings and parties. His 2006 album,
Be Man Che, featured lyrics written by the Iranian poet
Iraj Janatie Ataie, who has written lyrics for Iranian pop singers such as
Ebi,
Dariush and
Googoosh. Ataie himself declaimed the poetic lyrics at the beginning of the title track. Since the album
Fire on Ice, Mortazavi's albums have been a combination of instrumental and vocal pieces. What sets him apart from other performers is his ability to personally play all the instruments used in his arrangements. On November 25, 2009, Bijan received his Fellowship (PhD) from
Southampton Solent University in Great Britain, in recognition of his work on the development of contemporary middle eastern music in an academic form in United Kingdom and other western countries. On November 16, 2010, his latest album (
Music and I) was released. On July 12, 2017, Southampton Solent University awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Music.
Instrument Mortazavi always uses a white, handmade violin in his performances. "I like to play my white violin because to me white represents peace and friendship", Mortazavi said in a TV interview. == Concerts ==